A personal "behind the scenes" insight from the perspectives of CEO-wife and COO-husband power team into what its like to be a family owned and operated small business called EBSCO Spring Company. www.ebscospring.com

Post Season

It’s post season baseball! This is when, after 162 games the best of the best square off seeking that one top spot. I like baseball. I really like the post season. I LOVE the Cardinals in the Post Season. They just went up one game to none on the Cubs last night. To say the least I’m excited about the Cards chance for a National Championship this year.

Like almost everything in life, I equate it to business and Ebsco. That is where I find some of my most valuable lessons. Baseball is no exception.

The key to the Cardinals 100 win season is their manager, Mike Matheny. Despite several key injuries and adversity he has kept the club together and focused on their business, winning games. Matheney has plugged in rookies, traded players and vets to new positions and roles to get the wins. He has motivated and inspired the players. They walk on the field believing they will win regardless of their roster. Matheny has utilized his talent in the best possible ways and inspired them to be successful.

It’s no different at Ebsco. Our manager is Cheryl Dooley our President. She looks good in a Cardinal hat. Cheryl has been changing our lineup lately. Putting key players in new roles. She sees opportunities in our lineup and has put players in a position to take advantage of them. She sees the club as a whole and knows what we need to win.

She recently re-positioned our two managers from splitting the departments and has given them each specific focuses in the lineup. One manager, Nick Dooley has been given the entire production process. A huge responsibility for one person but giving it to one person allows him to plan and respond with the entire production process. One focus, one goal, getting quality parts out on time. He has responded to the challenge like an All Star and is really making a difference. Our other manager, Josh Burton has been moved to Quality. He has the intelligence and experience to take us to the next level. This move has allowed our Quality VP, Paul Lord to concentrate on engineering quality. It is giving our Quality Assurance team the time to focus on improving the Quality System. Another All Star performance here with results showing the first day in the new line up.

Manager Dooley has taken her other two VPs (including me) and put us in different roles. Cheryl has personally taken responsibility for sales, allowing our CFO, Liz Jeter to focus on corporate sales and finance. This has given Liz the time to dig deeper into these areas while coordinating corporate sales with Cheryl’s new team. As VP Production, Cheryl has narrowed my focus. She has sidelined a couple of projects, allowing myself and the team to focus on core responsibilities of quality parts on time to our customers. We’re not going to spend time on driving new areas until our core basics are the best they can be. Focus and enthusiasm.

So our manager has put us on a path to win. She has put the right people in the right position, with the right attitude and drive to win it all. Now it’s our turn to make it happen. We’re not going to be satisfied until we win the World Series and then start it all over next year. We have several pennants to hang over the upcoming years. In sports and business, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. The alternative is unacceptable.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to take more batting practice.

Just saying…..

TODD

And YES, I have a Cardinals hat, I just couldn’t find a pic of me wearing it.